A blog about food... what else would it be about?

Everyone in the health world seems to be really into 'raw' brownies, cakes and energy bars at the moment and although I love them, when I came across a recipe posted by Alison from Relauncher for a baked chocolate nut cake that has no flour or added sugar and can be served warm, I got really really excited.

This cake is super easy to make and very healthy for a chocolate cake. It has a few really great ingredients like almonds, cacao and oranges to give it a choc orange nut flavour and a super food kick. There is no added sugar other than some dried fruit. To try and eliminate fructose I only used 1/2 a cup of dried fruit (instead of 500g like the original recipe) and I actually think you could make the cake without any dried fruit at all.

I served up the cake at a dinner party and then at work the next day. It is sooo delicious warm. Faces instantly melted as they ate it and they had no idea how healthy it was until I sent around a 'what's in the cake' email.

What you need to make one cake:

100g sugar free dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces

1 orange, the juice and zest

1 cup of almonds, chopped to your liking

4 large eggs

1/2 tbsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup dried fruit (I used plums as they had the least amount of sugar), soaked until plump (about 15 minutes)

1 tbsp rice malt syrup

1/2 tsp liquid stevia

3 tbsp cacao powder

4 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

How to make it:

Turn on the oven to 180°C. Line a spring form cake tin with baking paper and a little oil or butter. Blitz the dried fruit in a processor until chopped into small pieces. Remove the fruit and place it in a large bowl. Next blitz the almonds until chopped into small pieces. Add the nuts, chocolate, orange juice, orange zest, vanilla essence, malt syrup, stevia, cacao powder and coconut oil to the fruit and mix well.

With a blender or egg beater, whisk or blend the eggs until light and fluffy. Carefully fold through the cake mixture. The mixture is runnier than a normal chocolate cake but will set once it has cooked.

Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until cooked. Leave to rest for 10 minutes before removing from tin.

Serve warm with fresh berries.

Make it Naughty: Serve with your choice of ice cream (such as coconut ice cream), frozen yoghurt or cream. I have a recipe for cashew cream at the end of this post. You could also heat up some coconut oil and add some cacao and rice syrup or stevia for a quick chocolate sauce, but I really don't think you need it.

Cashew cream recipe:

What you need:

1 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for a few hours in filtered water

3/4 cup non-dairy milk (i.e. almond, oat, rice, soy)

1-2 tbsp maple syrup, honey or rice syrup (or liquid stevia to taste)

1-2 tsp vanilla extract

How to make it:

Drain the soaked cashews and put everything in a blender or food processor. Blend until it has a thick consistency and add more milk if required.

Hello! For this recipe I used my supermarket brand sugarless chocolate becuase I like the way the chunks melt. I have made my own using cacao, coconut oil and some sweetener and let it set in the freezer.